, they say that they gave ground on other issues, including raisingthetaxthreshold,as well as -- that was from two hours ago. sheila jackson mentioned the change that she objects to, she and other outside democrats and house progressives in particular. don is on the democrat's line. go ahead with your comments. caller: i am an old disabled veteran. i love this country so much. i cannot understand for the life of me what our government is trying to do with the bickering and tearing each other down, tearing the country down. why in the world can these supposedly intelligent groups of men and women not get together to work out for the best interest of all concerned, all 330 billion americans, what is the best course to take? just take it. none of this squabbling. get together, folks. let's have some harmony in warrington. that is what we need. we need more on selfishness. a lot less ulterior motives. no more 2000 page bills that no one can understand. we do not need more of that crap in washington. we need some representation. get your act together. >> we are going next to minnea

a caucus meetings and update members of the parties on a possible planfortaxesandspending on the new year. will bring you live coverage of the senate on c-span2 started at 1:00 eastern. in the house, the return of 2:00 p.m. you'll be considering a number of pieces of legislation. what the live coverage of the house here and c-span. next, retiring senator kent conrad reflects on his career in congress to. it is currently senate budget committee chairman and was first elected to the senate in 1986. this is about half an hour. >> senator conrad, your farewell speech was yesterday. what is that like? >> it has been great. i had the going away party the night before. a lot of my colleagues were there. then the farewell speech, in which i had a chance to reflect on my service here. but also, to challenge my colleagues to finish the job on the grand bargain to get our fiscal house in order. i laid out the specifics of what i thought would be a genuine compromise between the two sides. it was satisfying. >> why did you decide not to run again? >> many reasons. i have served your 26 y

the bus and for some prices higher. these young people and their parents are payingataxforeducation and in what country do live in were repeated -underscore? nobody should be made to pay for school, especially when the money is to line the pockets? public transport by the polling accessibility and treatment of disabled and the public transport in our country they desperately need. issues clearly in the best interest of young people we represent and to ignore it beyond just the people. let's make this year the year were reaching =tranfour us to be the last year the issue comes out. >> every restraint ticket the gender balance and this is no exception. i am looking for from the mill stickers, in particular from london. okay, i'm going to take a woman in the second tobacco. yourself, thank you. >> a speaker in opposition for public transport plane that london can =tranfour is a top-rated issue. it is not adjusted to young people and is the main issue. nationally we identify issues of =tranfour and we need to see a representing him. thank you. [applause] >> i think we've got o

interest rate, saving it. furthermore, i am proposing eliminating capitalgainstaxesoninvestment. it is a way to spur investment. saying that, in the city of jewish right we have an extraordinarily high number of people who have lost hope because they are not working. they're out the metropolitan region -- throughout the metropolitan region we have thousands of job better going unfilled because they cannot find people qualified to be hired into those jobs. we have a skills gap in detroit as well as in this country. i know you understand these economic challenges we are facing. how you feel investing in assets innovation would help us close that gap? >> i in the first university graduate in my family. the only reason i studied science and came to this country because the commitments this committee has made. i believe that power of investments that come from these have a tremendous effect on the youth on the young high school student who is making decisions for her career and the future that she has in front of her. i do believe the inspiration aspect of nasa is an important part. once

effect are a big sticking point in these negotiations. people are trying toavoidtaxesgoingup automatically and there is a spending side trying to make sure these do not happen and a sticking point for how and if they avoid these will trying to avert the tax increases. guest: i was in the scrum of reporters as he walked out of the democratic caucus meeting. he asked senator reid if he planned to make a counteroffer and he said, i just did, and he kept walking. shortly thereafter, i spoke to his spokesperson is saying that he was just being rhetorical. i don't know if that was just a bit of harry reid your market -- humor or she had made a counteroffer and they did not want to make it public. that is how it has been. lots of information, lots of lawmakers trafficking. not a lot of good, solid information as these are pending. >> one story is that much mcconnell had gone to speak with vice president biden. what can you tell us? guest: the republican leader calls joe biden off the bench. it is what we had been waiting for. the senate republican leader and the vice-president have

the decade. that increased federalincometaxrate,it pays for the cost of the po grant. half of the students are not traditional students, but the half that are, they have a typical work load. yet 10 years to pay back the government for the cost of a grant. then there is a 14% return on investment. it is not as much of an advance from the federal government. we should stop thinking about this as being purely a personal benefit to the students. and there is all sorts of good that comes from higher education. there is a lot of good that stems from a college education and as a society, we should be putting the highest possible priority on it. we get what we sow, and you need to be thinking about where we want our society to be in a few decades, and the way to that, and ever improving society is through education, not cutting the one thing that is a real investment. >> another thing i would say, i will give you an example from a parent loan situation. if you get a client, you fail this credit check. you get about $4,000 extra in student loans. i hear this from administrators a lot,